Is this all?! Lard 1-12-11

Douglas LeeJan 12, 2011 7:30 AM

Good Morning, Broncos fans! The Denver coaching search is becoming more puzzling and worrisome by the day. Only last week, John Elway said "Preferably we’d like to have some head coaching background in the NFL, but it’s not a must." So far, this has translated into two guys with 11 games of head-coaching experience between them (Perry Fewell, Eric Studesville) and two guys who've never been NFL head coaches (Rick Dennison, Mr. Dirk Koetter) interviewing, while two former real, actual head coaches decided not to interview (Mark Mike Mularkey, Gregg Williams). The other former head coach scheduled to interview (John Fox) has made two failed attempts to fly out of North Carolina due to a snowstorm. Yet somehow, his replacement in Carolina (Ron Rivera) was able to fly to Charlotte to accept his new gig. Maybe they're just hoarding airplanes in NC by allowing landings and no takeoffs?

If Fox really wants to get to Denver, or if the Broncos really want him to get there, wouldn't he be there already? Hopefully that's put to rest in a matter of hours, but we'll see. By the way - has anyone pointed out that Fox had but three winning seasons in nine years with the Panthers? His teams have ranked in the NFL's bottom half in offensive yardage six out of nine years, so if you're into three yards and a cloud of dust, he's your guy. To find six seasons in which the Broncos have done that, we have to go all the way back to 1984.

Why not talk to Philly coordinators Marty Mornhinweg and/or Sean McDermott? Andy Reid has coached the Eagles to the playoffs in nine of the last eleven years, and his coaching tree features John Harbaugh, Brad Childress, Steve Spagnuolo, Leslie Frazier and Ron Rivera. But no, not a peep regarding Mornhinweg or McDermott. In fact, Klis is saying the Broncos don't plan on adding any new candidates to their list. Sounds like we're down to Dennison and Fox, neither of whom has an interview lined up with any other teams...

The Real Head Coaches of Denver™

Legwold on the Rick Dennison and Mr. Dirk Koetter shows, plus the travel adventures of John Fox.

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The reason that I don&#8217t want Gruden to coach the Broncos is that he took a pretty good team at Tampa that he did not build and won the SB in his 1st year. Then he let that pretty good team drop off into a not-so-good team. He could have kept it at a high level for 2-3-4 years.

I alway thought that McKay did a pretty good job. I shake my head with a WTF when good managers get caught in power politics in the NFL. At least that is what it appears to me to be.

Posted by BlackKnight on 2011-01-13 06:38:59

ButteBronco, weirder things have happended. My grandpa&#8217s last name was Halverson (he passed away several years ago), and he was always drinking from shot glasses.

Posted by CompUser on 2011-01-13 04:08:08

G&W&#8230........ Rich Kotite&#8230........another in long line and legacy of Jets coaching hires.

Hey I heard Octodad (Butthead) was spouting off about Brady. Shouldn&#8217t he be home trying to remember the name of his kids?

You think when Brady gets elected to hall of fame he will even remember who Cromartie is?

Posted by Dennis Mitchell on 2011-01-13 00:15:01

I love the stories that go &#8220except for this and this, that might have happened.&#8221 R. McKay was a real loser of a GM, wasn&#8217t he?

Except of course for that part about building the TB Bucs into a team that could win the Super Bowl, at which point Gruden, threatened by someone else having the power to block his insistence on players who didn&#8217t fit the system, demanded instead that they let McKay go. McKay moved to Atlanta and directed the rebuild of the Falcons into a SB contender while the Bucs reverted to their old ways under Gruden&#8217s tender guidance.

The facts of the case are that McKay DID accomplish those things. Why listen to him? Because he actually knows what he&#8217s talking about.

I don&#8217t care much for Xanders&#8217 conflicting stories, but attacking McKay established track record on the basis of &#8216this might have happened and then maybe that would have happened&#8217 makes no sense at all.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2011-01-13 00:14:41

Hey Compuser,

Most of my family is from Anaconda. We&#8217re probably related. They say the gene pools of Butte and Anaconda could fit in a shot glass. LOL.

Posted by ButteBronco on 2011-01-12 22:20:41

I&#8217m kind of with those of you like Exile who aren&#8217t panicking about this. I think the timing isn&#8217t great but there are some legit reasons for the ways things have panned out so far and I do believe things happen for a reason. I think best scenario would be a two headed beast like Fox and Dennison (as OC) but that is unlikely.

It does also make me think or is a reminder that, as someone noted above, keeping McD and just changing the infrastructure around him might ultimately have been the best thing to do (giving him more experienced coordinators and strengthening the front office while weakening McD&#8217s personnel powers). But I don&#8217t see this as a circus and I think there&#8217s still time to settle on the right person and situation.

Posted by underdog on 2011-01-12 19:56:05

rich kotite is on his way&#8230

Posted by green and white in new york on 2011-01-12 19:43:50

ND, then they shoulda kept McDaniels and not gone through the trouble of having to pay his contract out plus hire Elway and pay him plus hire a new head coach and pay him.

Or, it could be they really want to win. Nah, that&#8217d just make sense.

Occam&#8217s razor. It usually works.

Posted by jtomasik on 2011-01-12 19:32:17

Actually, I have it on good authority that the Broncos are going to try to get no more than 2-3 wins for the next 2-4 years to see if attendance drops enough that the team can be moved. Bowlen was watching Major Leaque the other day and thought it would be great if the team was somewhere warmer.

Posted by NDbronco on 2011-01-12 19:23:09

@ButteBronco. Agree with the &#8220foregone conclusion&#8221 statement. I believe that for Denver this year, the foregone conclusion is Dennison.

My paternal grandparents lived in Anaconda when I was growing up, but I haven&#8217t been there since the late 60s. I remember driving through Butte on the way to Anaconda and thinking it would be a nice place to live.

Sure would like to have that group again. Not sure this year&#8217s search quite stacks up&#8230

Posted by RalphW on 2011-01-12 18:59:59

I sure am glad we&#8217ve all been proven wrong many, many times, or this article would have me worried.

Posted by jtomasik on 2011-01-12 18:32:23

Sorry Drew, &#8220Sandbag&#8221 probably wasnât the right term, but there is something sandbagish if you look at the Wade Phillips era a certain way. Sure, you don&#8217t want a guy that&#8217s going to tank, but if you&#8217re making a hire that will be serviceable and test out the FO guys in place with something bigger in mind, it&#8217s sandbagish. That&#8217s the way I took your original comment. Now that you clarified it for me, I see what you meant, it makes sense and I tend to agree.

The point I was trying to make in my post was that none of us really know, and to take a look at some past hires to see how they went down. The links I chose were mainly &#8220interview-intensive&#8221 searches, rather than picking a guy and grabbing him. FWIW, it seems like a large proportion of hires that I looked at were of the &#8220foregone conclusion&#8221 variety. I didn&#8217t have time to break it down, but just look at this year so far. From reports it appears CAR wanted Rivera all along. The SF thing was a forgone conclusion, and it appears OAK (Jackson) and CLE (Shurmer) are as well. Pete Carrol to SEA was certainly that.

I&#8217m not sure if you can draw too many conclusions from those links, or the nature of the SF, CAR, OAK, and CLE searches, but to me, they are interesting, esp. the ATL one.

Posted by ButteBronco on 2011-01-12 18:21:02

&#8220Every Broncos beat reporter has said the team is not bringing in additional candidates.&#8221

So you&#8217re saying that Bronco beat reporters never make assumptions about anything? Elway is supposedly tweeting every detail about the HC search, and the instant he does, those tweets are quoted either here or at MHR, but I haven&#8217t seen any that say they&#8217re not bringing in any more candidates.

I think they will bring in additional candidates. Maybe Elway is getting smarter about it and doesn&#8217t plan to announce who the candidates are until they&#8217re actually available to be candidates. I also think it was Dennison&#8217s job to lose from the start, and the only reason other candidates are being brought in is to placate the fans, and of course satisfy the Rooney Rule. (Pure speculation on my part, of course.)

Posted by CompUser on 2011-01-12 17:48:10

Butte:

I wouldn&#8217t characterize mine as the &#8216sandbag&#8217 theory, because I don&#8217t think Denver is necessarily tanking it. They are just playing the hand they dealt themselves, which is 1)trying to sell an organizational structure void of meaningful experience at the top and 2) looking for a situation that gives the new philosophy the best chance to succeed (i.e. Finding a guy that is both clear on and comfortable with the idea of another guy controlling his roster).

I actually think that whoever Denver choses, that guy is going to be a rock star in the pretty near future. He will win a lot of games on the backs of the vast majority of McD players who don&#8217t fit under the incredibly small&#8212albeit very exaggerated&#8212string-of-McD-personnel-mistakes umbrella. There is plenty of work to be done, for sure, but this roster isn&#8217t nearly the disaster it is painted to be. I wouldn&#8217t be at all surprised by a Tampa like turn around.

Posted by Drewthorn on 2011-01-12 17:34:10

&#8220But whoâs to say that theyâre done bringing in coaches?&#8221

Every Broncos beat reporter has said the team is not bringing in additional candidates.

Back to the Xanders matter. In reading the story on Mike Smith - thanks for the links Butte Bronco - it is stated that Rich McKay was stripped of his GM duties and if not for Parcells opting for Miami over Atlanta there&#8217s a good chance McKay is out the door altogether and not &#8220promoted&#8221 to president to help the transition of Dimitroff into a GM role. Yet, Elway was happy to retain Xanders on the advice/reference of McKay&#8230 don&#8217t get it.

Posted by Uncle Rico on 2011-01-12 17:21:34

I think we all just need to take a deep breath about the coaching search. Fewell has been high on other teams&#8217 lists for a number of years and he interviewed here. Dirk was recommended by his best player (MJD) and by Gregg Williams. Fox coached a team to the Super Bowl and was 71-57 as a head coach entering 2010. And Rico knows all sides of the ball and is a Bronco through and through.

Are these flashy picks? Not really. But the woe-is-me attitude probably isn&#8217t warranted. Let&#8217s be honest: we never really had a shot with Harbaugh. It was SF or Stanford all the way. And Williams? Well, he made a decision not to abandon his team after a shellacking in the playoffs&#8212that&#8217s a decision of great integrity and we have no idea if the &#8220state of the Broncos&#8221 played into the decision.

If these are our options for the next head coach, I&#8217m OK with that. But who&#8217s to say that they&#8217re done bringing in coaches? Isn&#8217t it possible that Atlanta loses on Sunday and we bring in Mularkey on Monday or Tuesday? And if we don&#8217t? Well, Mularkey was 14-18 as a head coach and was the Dolphins TE coach before going to the Falcons. Not exactly a superstar resume.

Would I like Mularkey as our next head coach? Sure I would. But who&#8217s to say he would be the man to turn around the Broncos? All of the available coaches or coordinators are available because they all have their flaws. It&#8217s up to Elway and Xanders to evaluate strenghts and weaknesses and then make the right choice. I hope they&#8217re up to the task.

One final point about Florio&#8217s comments about losses piling up: this is just my opinion, but there&#8217s no way the Broncos go 4-12 again next year. It just won&#8217t happen. The Broncos endured so many injuries, so many unlucky bounces and so many close losses that the pendulum is bound to swing in their direction, even if just a little, in 2011. Add to that five picks in the first three rounds (assuming Orton is traded) and a couple of additions on defense in free agency and this team stands to be much improved next year. Oh, they&#8217ve also got that Tebow guy who will keep them competitive in every game.

Posted by Royalwithcheese on 2011-01-12 17:06:03

The problem with all this speculation, of course, it it&#8217s speculation. There are a bunch of really great ideas and thoughts out there, but none of us really have any insight into what&#8217s going on. It seems like there are two prevailing narratives right now, there&#8217s the &#8220forgone conclusion&#8221 narrative, the &#8220good search gone bad narrative&#8221, and I like Drew&#8217s new &#8220sandbag&#8221 narrative.

I looked back to some recent coaching hires and see how they played out. I found some good links that summarized who was hired, who was interviewed, the FO structure/changes/philosophies involved, etc. Check it out. How does the Broncos search stand up? I know which one will be popular here&#8212team goes out and hires up-and-coming FO guy as GM, interviews top-notch assistants, etc.

Carolina (Rivera), hot off the presses. Put this one in the &#8220forgone conclusion&#8221 category.

The reason I&#8217m concerned that Dennison has never called plays has nothing to do with whether he&#8217d call plays with the Broncos. To me, that means he&#8217s never been a full-blown coordinator, for lack of a better term. Sure, guys have gone from position coaches to successful head coaches. But as chantech has pointed out, the career paths of those guys tend to be meteoric in nature.

I have no beef with Dennison, and I have no favorite in (or out of) this race. I&#8217m just not liking the process of it all. It feels like it&#8217s all been an elaborate snow job to make us think there&#8217s a real search going on, while perhaps Dennison has had it locked up all along. Contrast this search with the last one conducted by Denver - that was done well. The Broncos spoke to McDaniels, Spagnuolo, Morris, Dennison, Frazier, Bowles and Garrett.

FiE, nobody ever has to apologize for singling me out, haha. I put myself out there everyday - I have to be able to take the criticism&#8230

Posted by Douglas Lee on 2011-01-12 16:58:19

Denver was in no hurry to interview Ron Rivera, so why the urgency to hire a coach by next week all of a sudden? The prudent thing to do is to exercise patience and expand the search to include additional qualified candidates such as Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Greg Mattison, New York Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, Jr., Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers, the Eagles coaches Douglas mentions and Jon Gruden.

Further, unless the Broncos know for certain that Mularkey bailed for reasons other than preparing for the Packers, wait for the Falcons season to end so that an interview with Mularkey, at one time rumored to be the front-runner, is possible. (Fan in Exile, you write that Mularkey will interview for sure after the Falcons are eliminated, but the info coming out of Dove Valley is that the Broncos will NOT wait for Mularkey or any other candidates. How stupid and shortsighted?!?).

Even if Gruden demands final say authority and compensation too rich for the Broncos budget, meeting with the Super Bowl champion head coach will provide Elway a barometer to gauge discussions with other candidates.

ProFootballTalk.comâs Mike Florio notes that curiously neither Elway nor Jim Saccomano tweeted about Williams opting not to interview, and he shares his thoughts on the Broncos new all-access format:

âFolks also are barely noticing that many of the head-coaching candidates arenât candidates for any other head-coaching job. And no one has said much at all negative about the prospect of John Fox bringing his 2-14 record from Charlotte.

“So congrats, Broncos. You’ve managed to turn a potential P.R. nightmare into a positive situation. Let’s see if you can pull off similar magic if/when the losses pile up. Again.”

Posted by Uncle Rico on 2011-01-12 16:27:19

Drew, you outline a plausible and not-so-shabby scenario. But let&#8217s keep a lid on it! Broncos &#8220fans&#8221 read this thing, and if they get a whif of delayed gratification, they&#8217re going to go all Col. Kurtz on us. Quiet is welcome, big guy. Formally, I&#8217m sure that whoever coaches this team will have one 15 games by October. Anything less is unacceptable.

Posted by Chibronx on 2011-01-12 16:10:32

I think we fans need to relax a little bit about the coaching search. It hasn&#8217t been a circus, it hasn&#8217t been crazy.

We also aren&#8217t being snubbed the way people seem to think. Coaches take their names off lists all the time. Harbaugh was always going to the Niners, Williams has strong ties to the saints.

Mularky is coming in whenever his team is eliminated.

It&#8217s not a crisis.

The real problem is that fans have their favorite coaches, and when they don&#8217t get an interview they think the sky is falling.

Take Mornhinweg, not to single you out or anything Doug, he was 5-27 with the Lions. There&#8217s nothing about him that I want to touch. Do you remember when he made that atrocious overtime call to give the Bears the game?

Or McDermott sure he&#8217s a bright guy but he&#8217s running someone elses system with someone else&#8217s players right now. He hasn&#8217t had the job long enough to show if he can change with the NFL or not. It&#8217s way to soon to jump on the McDermott bandwagon. You can&#8217t on the one hand rip on Dennison and Koetter not having experience and then throw McDermott into the mix.

What we&#8217ve got to understand is that with every headcoach there are going to be pluses and minuses what we&#8217ve got to understand is the situation they came from, and how they&#8217ll fit in here.

I just wish the fans would stop listing only the minuses of the guys being brought in and the positives of the guys being left out.

Mason did a good job of keeping a balanced look at the guys, when people start freaking out they should go read his piece again.

One last point, it doesn&#8217t bother me that Dennison hasn&#8217t been calling the plays. I don&#8217t want my head coach calling the plays on either offense or defense, I want him to be the head coach and only the head coach. He should be the voice that gives feedback about running to much or blitzing too much, not the one that needs to hear the advice.

I think we&#8217ve reacted so much to a head coach not having GM responsibilities that we&#8217ve forgotten that they shouldn&#8217t be the coordinator either. I don&#8217t think it&#8217s as bad an idea as giving them GM powers, but it works better when they can supervise the way that they are supposed to.

I think Elway gets this, and he plans on bringing someone in who will be the leader that a head coach is supposed to be, not the game planner that the fans seem to be obsessed with.

Posted by Fan in Exile on 2011-01-12 16:08:53

This process is like we went to a speed dating night begrudgingly since we have our mind set to chase after our high school sweetheart (Rico). The cougar (Fox) sitting across from us today better impress us - hope she&#8217s not conservative <img alt="cheese" height="19" src="http://www.singernet.com/images/smileys/cheese.gif" style="border:0;" width="19"> in the way she peaks or dresses.

Posted by Orange and Blue on 2011-01-12 15:59:49

Chantech, just because a coach has another team he can poach from doesn&#8217t mean its possible. Look at McDaniels, as far as coaches, who was he able to poach? I think McDaniels had 2 strong Coordinators his first year then lost them both and replaced them with 2 poor coordinators. Was it because the good coordinators didn&#8217t want to work for him? Anyway, it could be that the Broncos regretted not hiring Dennison to begin with so maybe in their mind that they had someone better. I&#8217m not pro or anti anybody. Lets get a guy in there and see what he can do. There is no clearcut guy so matter what some are going to like the HC and some are going to hate the HC until the team wins or loses and then people will go to one side or the other.

Posted by sleepyteak on 2011-01-12 15:47:09

This could all play out like the short lived Wade Phillips era eons ago, and going a similar route makes some sense. Back then, Bowlen had his eye on a specific guy who was unavailable, but the bigger issue was that he knew he didn&#8217t want to continue in the Reeves direction. Phillips essentially did a functional job at keeping the ship pointed in the right direction, and when opportunity presented itself, the organization pounced. I think its sort of unrealistic to expect a proven and hot commodity to jump into a subservient role in Denver, under a completely unproven front office, with an organization that is trumpeting a radical change of philosophy. There are just too many unknowns in that scenario. So since Denver has the advantage of rock bottom short-term expectations at this point, the next couple of years give them the opportunity to see if Xanders and Elway are up to the task. More importantly, Elway and Xanders get the opportunity to prove to football people that they have the knowledge and skill to fashion a winner. If, in a couple years, Denver seems to be trending upward, then all the sudden a lot of guys are going to want to be a part of it, and they will have all sorts of flexibility regarding coaching. If they are in the tank, they can go back to Bowlen&#8217s comfort zone, and target the next high profile coach-as-czar guy. Heck, the lack of star power in the interview list is probably somewhat intentional. If they truly believe in Xanders, and truly believed he was bullied out of a role with McD, they can&#8217t really hire a Gruden or Harbaugh and expect it to play out as planned. Xanders needs the room, the structure, and the advantage having more experience than his subordinate.

Posted by Drewthorn on 2011-01-12 15:43:54

Personally, I like it when a head coach leaves it to his coordinators to call plays. Let him concentrate on overall flow of the game, clock management, adjustments, etc. A good head coach will be a communicator and surround himself with good people. He&#8217ll be able to communicate to players and be able to assist coaches in personel conflicts etc. He&#8217s the captain of the ship. that doesn&#8217t mean he has to be behind the wheel, it just means the guy behind the wheel would do what the captain wants.

Posted by sleepyteak on 2011-01-12 15:35:11

My concerns with Dennison are 1. he hasn&#8217t really innovated anywhere he has been - pretty much just learning and executing (which he has been good at) 2. I think he&#8217s going to have problems finding strong coordinators - does he have a coaching network outside of the Broncos and Texans to tap? Both those organizations are very incestuous so it doesn&#8217t feel like there are too many new ideas. 3. I don&#8217t want a good head coaching candidate, I think organizations should strive to hire the next Walsh, Belichick, Shanahan, and this guy isn&#8217t that.

NDBronco, it&#8217s funny that you mention that because I&#8217ve been down on George Karl since he&#8217s been a Nuggets coach (poor clock management, poor preparation, lack of technical excellence, poor lineups and substitutions, etc.). Anyways, I had a conversation with Kroenke&#8217s right hand man last year and bluntly brought up my concerns on Karl. To my surprise, he agreed with me! He said something very smart which has stuck with me: &#8220If you don&#8217t have a guy in mind that&#8217s better than the guy you&#8217re replacing, you shouldn&#8217t fire your coach. We don&#8217t have a better candidate than George Karl. Yes, Greg Poppovich is better, yes there are 4 or 5 guys who are better, but we can&#8217t get them, so until we have a better option, we&#8217re sticking with Karl.&#8221 That statement made a lot of sense to me.

Posted by chantech on 2011-01-12 15:28:13

Thanks for clarifying that, Doug. It&#8217s weird how Dennison is associated with the team&#8217s terrible special teams, since the Broncos had top-10 units in 1997 and 1998. I also feel like special teams is really talent-dependent unless you&#8217re the Bears (they have talent, but scheming to boot).

I&#8217m receptive to the argument that Rico has done well everywhere he&#8217s went. I really, really liked hearing him talk about having an aggressive defense. Also, the defense should attack a lot, blitz, and be aggressive. TJ would agree. The guy could be a good head coach, esp. given the restructuring of the organization.

What I can&#8217t stand is the picture of the team that locking onto Rico paints. In 2008, they decided to fire the coach as kind, bring in a front office, and become a more systematic, hierarchical organization. That lasted one-and-one-half months. It&#8217s January 2010, and they want to become that organization again, so they hire their best player to run the front office, come up with a really weird short list of candidates, and lock in before the interview on a candidate tied to the good-ol-days of zone blocking and playoff beat-downs. It&#8217s like somebody with a substance abuse problem. The team&#8217s been going on about how it wants to get clean for a long time, but it&#8217s hard to see them committing to it.

Posted by Chibronx on 2011-01-12 14:53:13

One negative perception I&#8217d like to kill regarding Dennison:

The Broncos&#8217 special teams under his tutelage were actually pretty good. Both SB years including some excellent work in the return games, notably Darrien Gordon and his 3 punt-return TDs in 1997. The next year, Vaughn Hebron gave us our first non-strike kick-return TD in who knows how long.

Elam and Rouen did more than fine under Dennison&#8217s guidance, although there were a couple blocked punts and a few return TDs against us. The Dante Hall/Devin Hester nightmares occurred post-Dennison&#8230

Posted by Douglas Lee on 2011-01-12 14:43:22

Boydy, Dennison may turn out to be a great head coach. But a few things to consider&#8230

1)Where&#8217s his competition?

2)Why doesn&#8217t anyone else want to talk to him?

3)He&#8217s a branch off a coaching tree that hasn&#8217t won 10 games since 2005

4)He&#8217s an OC who&#8217s never called plays

Posted by Douglas Lee on 2011-01-12 14:32:04

Thanks, Doug. You speak for me, which is a shame since the picture you paint is not pretty. Gregg Williams, Marty Mornhinweg and Mike Mularkey all seemed to be precise fits for what the team said it&#8217s looking for. And you&#8217ve got two bails on the search and a really weird disinterest in the guy who&#8217s apparently done some kind of good work, or something like that, with this mobile quarterback guy, whatshisface. Please, whatever you do, don&#8217t interview THAT guy.

Posted by Chibronx on 2011-01-12 14:19:39

This issue I am seeing with the &#8220so and so needs to be paired with a strong Offensive/Defensive Coordinator&#8221 theme is that the only way to lure a top flight coordinator is to make them a HC. So the team is going to have to choose a strong HC from one side of the ball and probably settle for a little less on the other side. I don&#8217t think this Assistant HC idea that Woody has popularized is realistic. The top coaches will realize it&#8217s title play. In reality there is a HC, the coordinators and nothing in between. The thought of the offense under Fox or the defense under Dennison scares me a little but I&#8217m not sure what the best solution is.

I was wondering who reads this to Green & White so he can attempt to comment on it? <img alt="wink" height="19" src="http://www.singernet.com/images/smileys/wink.gif" style="border:0;" width="19">

Posted by Dennis Mitchell on 2011-01-12 14:07:37

I think we got rid of a better coach than we are interviewing. I just don&#8217t see what the fuss with Dennison is about. He coached special teams (and did a lousy job) for the broncos, and he was offensive coordinator for a couple years but didn&#8217t call plays. What&#8217s to recommend the guy? He was with Denver&#8230and that&#8217s it. The only candidate I think he beats out is Studesville&#8230and just barely.

Posted by NDbronco on 2011-01-12 13:52:11

Doug, longtime lurker and even longer time admirer of the work put out by you guys. As a resident of Charlotte I can confirm that they are severely restricting departure flights on account of there not being enough de-icing fluid for the airlines to carry on as usual. Because of this, only high priority flights are getting the juice. Maybe US Airways operations should be given a heads-up that they are impeding access to a legitimate, experienced NFL head coaching candidate!

Thanks for the lard -

JD

Posted by JDunn on 2011-01-12 13:35:26

I am not getting the doubt on Dennison. Remember, Mike Smith and Mike McCarthy were WTF selection as well.

I think Rico has it in spades to be not just a good but a GREAT HC. He is smart, has grounding in ALL sides of the ball, has played to the highest level and GETS the broncos.

He is by far the best candidate.

I laugh at the double standards: The same people say they dont wont retreads also criticize Dennison because he has not HC experience. Cant have it both ways.